Why don’t some teachers try to understand the pain of a student?
This question was asked to me on Quora by one of my followers. I am sharing the answer below:
Thanks for requesting an answer for this question. I am sorry I am replying quite late.
Your question reminds me of a small incident which changed my life. I was working with a start-up in 2012 which conducted psychometric assessments for high school students in order to guide them for better career choices and decision making. As part of the process, we would provide 3–5 most suited career options for each student.
My mentor, an experienced psychologist and psychometrician, would very rarely suggest teaching as a career to students; even though we knew, based on data, that a lot of these students might inadvertently choose the teaching profession because of various factors; such as lack of opportunity, ease of job/profession, money, comfort of living in the same town — things which are causing majority of the problems related to teaching in India!
So I asked my mentor and she said, “A bad doctor might kill or injure a dozen people in his life, a bad engineer might kill or hurt a few hundreds if his bridges fall but a bad teacher, a bad teacher will ruin entire generations!”
And this is the reason she would pick, like a connoisseur, very few passionate kids who were truly empathetic, managed time well, were likely to be experts in particular subjects, natural people’s persons and deep reservoirs of patience. These were the kids she would recommend teaching to.
Now, when you read the qualifications needed to become a teacher, you might realise why a lot of teachers fall short of expectations. Probably the teacher you are talking about is one such individual who lacked the empathy or understanding of reacting to a certain situation.
When I decided to become a teacher, I knew it was a commitment for life. And I had to be ready for it. It was going to be bad or lesser pay, unprofessional co-workers and long hours. I have made mistakes, I am human and I am learning, but mostly I can say I have performed to the best of my abilities. Even today, when I teach, the satisfaction I see in my students’ eyes, once they have understood something I am teaching; that sight is the ultimate motivation that I need. I realise I have impacted certain lives and I can sleep peacefully at night.
But then there are external factors which are also ruining the teachers’ work-life-health balance. This imbalance makes them bad at their jobs. I conducted a research study on Delhi’s Municipal school teachers, as part of my masters in psychology. The results were that 53% of all teachers were facing stress and burn-out. Another 16% were on the verge of getting burnt-out.
The reasons were many — bad working environment, lack of appreciation, lack of motivation to perform and professional harassment.
When you are demanding so much from a person, they need to be provided a stable and sustaining support system as well. The world’s best education systems have very high payouts for their teachers (How the job of a teacher compares around the world) Of course this data does not accurately define the direct correlation between teacher salaries and performance metrics of teachers. There are other factors involved as well but the indicators are clearly there.
In India, teachers have always been reverred (as with a lot of other Asian cultures). But Indians take it a step further with the Guru tradition. A Guru is a person who would be your subject teacher, spiritual guide, moral compass and an unshakable ideal. Of course all these things are a little impractical to be asked of a person today, but most of these things still exist in good amounts in good teachers.
I hope I have given you enough food for thought and maybe not drifted too far away from the question. But I think if you ask a more specific question with more subjective details, I might be able to answer you in a better way. I think all other answers to this question are also valid based on different interpretations.
My last piece of advice, go and ask the teacher about the incident, maybe you will get the answer you are looking for. Teachers are very accessible as opposed to what is generally presumed of them!
Teachers always learn :)
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